Only Human
by DamonLoveElena
Summary: When Elena Gilbert begins her medical internship, she expects nothing to get in her way, until she crosses paths with her estranged twin sister Katherine and romantic feelings begin to arise for one of the residents. AH Stelena/Delena


Outside the hospital I stood, gazing up at its large exterior and shining windows. Inside those beige walls, lives were being made, and lives were being taken away. My life was just beginning. The moment I stepped in those wide doors was the moment that my career as a doctor would begin. First I needed to make it through my internship.

"Are you an intern too?" a bubbly voice behind me asked. I turned around to find a cheerful blonde staring at me with a grin and expectant eyes. She didn't strike me as the surgeon type. "Sorry if you're not. I'm just trying to get to know everyone, you know, since we're all going to be together for a long time and I'm sorry if I'm rambling."

"Its fine," I laughed, holding out a hand for her to shake. "Yeah, I'm an intern. My name's Elena."

"Well Elena," she smiled as she shook my hand. "It's lovely to meet you."

"You too," I said quietly. "You wanna go inside?"

"Well we have to, don't we?" she laughed. "Let's go."

She continued talking as we entered the busy building. I learned more about her life in a span of only two minutes than I knew of my closest friends. Caroline was a wealthy girl from New York, meaning she knew how to make friends and almost always keep them. From our short conversation on our way to the locker room, I gathered little about her family, other than the fact that they'd paid her way through medical school.

"Look, its doctor Barbie," I heard a tall brunette snicker at Caroline quietly r from the other side of the locker room. Caroline was either unaware or chose to ignore the comment, as she was still smiling as she grabbed my hand and dragged me to a locker.

"I ignore people like her," she said nonchalantly as she shrugged her shoulders. "I heard it all in med school. 'Go back to Malibu' or 'where's Ken, Barbie?' It's nothing new to me. Elena-

She stared blankly at the door as the entire room suddenly fell silent. I whirled around to see the one person I thought I'd never see again. Grinning at me smugly with her arms folded over her chest was my identical yet older twin sister.

"Katherine," I hissed, my fists clenching at my sides.

"Hello, Elena," she said devilishly with a small wave. "What are you doing here?"

I gritted my teeth but stood tall. I'd hated my sister for years and when I left home the day I turned eighteen, I thought I'd never have to see her again. I'd been through college and medical school without a word from her. What was she doing standing in front of me?

"I could ask you the same thing?" I hissed.

"I'm an intern here," she asked, acting as if my angry reaction was uncalled for. "I didn't know you would be here. Come here, little sister."

My body went rigid as she wrapped her arms around my torso and held me in her arms. She pulled away with a grin.

"It's been so long?" she said sadly, stroking my cheek with her lip jutted out. "But we have plenty of time to catch up. I'll see you in a bit."

She waggled her fingers, smiled and stepped out of the room. My mouth was agape, completely shocked that the sister I hadn't seen in nearly ten years was here in the same hospital. I hadn't even been aware that she was in medical school.

"Who was that?" Caroline whispered to me through the silence.

"That was my bitch of a twin sister," I spat as I slid the stethoscope around my neck. I rolled my eyes dramatically, shook my head and rushed out into the halls, only to collide with the solid chest of one of the surgeons. "Oh, excuse me."

I caught of flash of the bronze haired beauty before I bowed my head and sidestepped to rush away. I didn't get far before his hand flew out to grab my arm. A slow blush crept across my cheeks as he spun me around to face him.

"Where's the fire?" he chuckled.

"Sorry, I didn't see you," I said nervously. "I was just on my way to the cafeteria to get some coffee before my day starts…"

"You're an intern," he said with a slight grin before sticking out a hand. "I'm Stefan Salvatore. You are?"

"Elena Gilbert," I said as I shook his hand.

"I think you're on my service," he said happily. Our handshake fell as the pager on his scrubs rang loudly. "Oh, I have to go but I will see you in a bit."

"Bye," I said quietly before he looked at his pager and rushed off. Ready to return to the locker room, I turned around to find Caroline already behind me with a wide grin on her young face.

"Were supposed to meet the chief in the lobby," she said cheerfully. "You ready?"

"Yeah," I said, shaking myself out of the daze that Stefan had put me in. "Let's go."

"The next year you spend here will be hell," the young chief announced as he stood before the large crowd of interns. Some I'd seen in the locker room, other's I hadn't. The brunette that had chastised Caroline was on the other side of the room at Katherine's side while a bright eyed girl with caramel skin named Bonnie had joined Caroline and I. "After I show you the hospital, you'll find your attending and then, your life here at the Kapi'olani Medical Center begins."

Caroline and I exchanged an excited glance before we followed the crowd out of the lobby.

"This is all so exciting," Bonnie said as we gazed around the halls. "I'd always dreamed of coming to Hawaii but I didn't think I'd ever be a doctor here."

"Here we are," Caroline squeaked, her hands clasped like a child in prayer.

We continued walking through the hospital, examining all of the different wings and departments. Caroline had dreams of specializing in Neonatology while Bonnie and I both aspired to be top pediatric cardiologists. I still had no idea as to what Katherine wanted to do.

"Here's where you'll be most of the time," Chief said as we stopped in one of the spacious OR's. "Of course you'll be with your attending or whoever else allows you to scrub in. This could be your safe haven or your hell. It's whatever you make it to be."

"I can't wait to start operating," Bonnie whispered excitedly.

After his explanation, we were set free to find the doctor whose service we would be on. I was happy to find that Caroline, Bonnie and I had all been put on Stefan's service, but also displeased to find the Brunette and Katherine were there too. I could see Caroline eyeing the only male in our group.

"I'm Tyler," he told her with a slight smile. "Looks like we'll be on the same service."

"I guess so," she grinned girlishly as we came up to Stefan standing at the nurse's station. He was chatting idly with another doctor. His eyes seemed to light up when he saw our group heading his way. I swear my heart skipped a beat when that smile crossed his lips.

"Hello everyone," he said with a slight nod of the head as he handed out our pagers. "My name is Dr. Salvatore, most just call me Stefan."

"Hi Stefan," Katherine said in her sultry voice, moving to the front of the crowd. "I'm Katherine."

His eyes flickered between Katherine and I quickly, obviously not having noticed before that he had the identical twins on his service.

"But you will call me Dr. Salvatore," he spoke out, ignoring Katherine's pursuit. "I only have one rule and that is you do what you are told when you are told."

We followed Stefan as he began to walk quickly down the hallway.

"I'm not a mean kind of guy but I have no problem being mean if you get on my nerves or undermine my authority," he said as we walked. "Is that clear?"

We all nodded in agreement but kept on walking briskly.

"This is the on call room," he told us as he opened the door to a meek room with beds lining the stark white walls.

"This is where you can rest when you're on call or if you simply need to stop," we left the room as his pager rang. "Oh, and one more rule. Always follow me."

Rather than walking briskly, we were now sprinting down the halls. I found myself nearly out of breath when we found ourselves in the ER and standing over the broken and mangled body of a teenage boy.

"I'm going to be sick," Caroline said, ducking out of the room.

I saw Stefan roll his eyes in disappointment before barking out orders for the rest of us to follow. I often found myself pushing Katherine aside or being pushed aside by Katherine.

"Stop pushing me Katherine," I hissed as I did my best to do what I was told.

"You stop pushing me," she spat through her teeth. "Let me do my job."

"Let me do mine," I said as I physically pushed her aside. She came back and shoved me, thus leading me to fall into Stefan.

"Out!" he boomed to the both of us. "If two can't get along then I don't want you in here."

I exhaled angrily, threw down the stethoscope and stormed out of the room. Katherine followed quickly behind.

"You ruin everything!" I said, shoving her angrily.

"I didn't do a damn thing to you, Elena," she said calmly in her condescending voice, her eye brows furrowed together in frustration. "You're the one that's holding a grudge for something that happened when we were in high school. You got us kicked out of that room. Not me. This is your fault."

My day had barely started, yet I already felt small enough to quit.

"Whatever Katherine," I shook my head and hurried to the on-call room.

I was in there for what seemed like hours, waiting for someone else to come, to come and tell me that Katherine had disappeared and was gone for good. An hour ago, my career had seemed so promising, so bright. After Katherine and I's argument, Stefan would kick me off of his service for sure.

"Elena?" Bonnie said quietly as she came into the room. I sat up on the bed and sighed loudly. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," I told her as I ran my hands through my hair. "I just can't believe Katherine would do this to me."

"Do what?" she took a seat. "Why do you hate her so much, Elena?"

"It's a long, complicated story," I sighed. "Is that boy okay?"

"We got him stable," she smiled slightly. "Until that pager goes off, I'm all ears."

"Okay well we were in high school and I was dating this guy named Matt," I began and suddenly, it was like I was back to that terrible summer day.

_"Its summer Elena," my best friend Anna said as we walked down the sidewalk of our small Virginia town. "And Mystic Falls is boring as usual. There has to be something to do around here, right?"_

_ "No," I laughed. "I know you haven't lived here very long but you should know that Mystic Falls is the birth place of the word boring. I think Meredith is throwing that field party tonight so that should be fun. I still need to ask Matt if he's going."_

_ "Speaking of which, have you talked to Matt?" she asked as we entered the grill. I looked around, expecting to find him working, but the grill was virtually empty and there were no signs of Matt. "I thought he was working today."_

_ "Yeah, I did too," I said wearily. "I'm going to go see if he's at his house. See you at the party?"_

_ "Yeah," she smiled as she waved. "I'll see you there."_

_ I left the grill and walked quickly to his house, only to find that he wasn't home. Perplexed by the fact that my boyfriend was virtually missing, I headed home. I was ready to find the door locked, due to the fact that both of my parents worked and so did Katherine, but it was wide open when I reached the front porch._

_ "Hello?" I called cautiously as I entered the house. "Katherine?"_

_ The only thing I heard was girlish laughter coming from upstairs. Looking around suspiciously, I walked up the stairs and was suddenly struck by a familiar male voice. The laughter continued._

_ "Katherine?" _

_ I threw open her bedroom door to find her beneath Matt, laughing loudly. He seemed to be laughing too, until he saw me standing in the doorway._

_ "Elena," he gasped, pushing Katherine away. _

_ Before he could defend himself further, I covered my face and hurried from the room before I burst out into inconsolable tears._

"And that was the day I vowed to never speak to my sister again," I finished. "What she did was unforgivable, Bonnie. I'll never forget the look on her face when I found her with him. It was like smug, like she'd planned it all out."

"Wow," she gasped quietly. "That's terrible. Did you ever talk to Matt again?"

"No," I shook my head. "Haven't spoken since."

"I can't believe she would do that to you. What kind of sister would do that?"

"Katherine would."


End file.
